2004 Breakout Sessions

A1 Breakout Session
View Synchronized Slides

The Automated Clinical Laboratory as a Team Player In the Automated Hospital
Robin A. Felder, PhD

This discussion will identify the types of automation available on the market and the issues laboratories should consider when initiating an automation project. Significant cost savings as well as increases in laboratory efficiency and management system. Many pre-analyzed in a timely manner. Patient identification, specimen labeling, sample tracking, and analysis are key steps in assuring error free clinical diagnostics. New technologies are also being developed to improve throughout the hospital. Once specimens arrive in the laboratory, modular automation systems are available that will provide a flexible approach to optimizing specimen throughput, analytical turnaround time, and return on investment.

As hospitals move toward an electronic medical record, laboratories can install intelligent test reporting systems, which include auto verification and automatic test expansion (automatic ordering of repeat, reflex or add-on tests). There are significant benefits to using auto verification including a reduction in fatique associated with reviewing data, a reduction in errors from overlooked abnormal results, an increase in patient safety, and improved reporting to the computing systems to in crease their productivity and improve patient outcomes. An efficient automated laboratory will work in concert with other automated systems in the hospital to improve patient safety, and reduced hospital stays. In the future, the use of predictive testing in the home will delay or reduce the amount of medical intervention necessary for our aging populations.